7000 Fake Rolex Watches Crushed By US Law Enforcement

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
May 26th 2010 at 6:01PM

If there is anything that watch brands hate more than a bad economy, it is fake watches. Asia pumps out fake watches faster than ever, and Swiss watch brands have been lobbying lawmakers and law enforcement all over the world to help out. First of all, fake watches are illegal. As far as watch brands are concerned, they are as bad as hard drug trafficking. While replica watches (and other luxury goods) don't represent a violent crime, they are very damaging to the luxury goods economy, and are severe infringements of intellectual property rights. For a long time many Asian countries (especially China) have a bad reputation for utterly disregarding intellectual property rights. It is hard enough to enforce such laws in those countries, but when the goods travel here, the US is pissed off.

A major dealer of fake luxury goods including Rolex watches who was arrested last year had his good endure a unique public spectacle. The take down was operated by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), who apparently worked closely with Rolex. The arrest last year was after years of investigation and gathering evidence. The culprit was one Binh Cam Tran of Pennsylvania. After importing the parts for the fake watches, the replica timepieces were assembled in his home outside of Philadelphia. Tran is currently serving 6 years in jail and has been ordered to pay over $2 million dollars to Rolex USA.

What you see above is a steamroller crushing 7000 confiscated fake Rolex watches that were seized as part of the Tran investigation and prosecution. The fakes were roller over again and again as a message to would-be importers or producers of fake watches. I would think that owning a fake and having it break soon after would be deterrent enough. Although, a major concern when it comes to replica watches are when they are passed-off as authentics. This harms the luxury economy as well as brands much more than when people knowingly purchase fake goods.

In the past luxury goods had a powerful weapon on their side - the mere fact that their goods were hard to make, used expensive materials, and hard to come by. Fakes have been a problem for as long as there was a luxury industry, but the distribution power of the Internet, as well as increasingly sophisticated techniques by replicators have compounded the problem. It calls into question the very definition of luxury, and whether something that can be reproduced so easily is still luxury. Rolex has a product that is very hard to fake well enough to trick educated watch lovers. Others... may be fooled.

My advice to anyone interested in purchasing luxury goods is to educate yourself before getting anything. Learn why a brand is considered luxurious, what makes their product special and why people like their products. A good design is easy to copy, but quality and construction is not. Know what the real thing is like before investing in one yourself. Through this education process you'll also learn if that item you are lusting for is even worth paying for in the first place (I am talking to you high margin luxury sunglasses makers!).

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: 7000, counterfeit, destroyed, fakes, ICE, replicas, Rolex, watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

mcclusky72112 May 28th 2010 11:24AM

Lets get those dangerous fake rolex watches, but don't bother the posion toys coming from China, the Drugs for Brazil and the Illegal Immigrants from Mexico etc
Good job boys we can all sleep safer knowing those watches was squashed at the ports.

mmurbarger May 28th 2010 3:23PM

Ha Ha Ha! WELL SAID!

Daniel May 29th 2010 8:39AM

Well said-- Ole times, Our government would of taken the assets of BP. Moved

the rigs somewhere and handled the oil spill. Don't worry we'll pay at the pumps

and food chains for all this mess. Daniel

Mark May 29th 2010 10:16AM

America- where" profits come before safety" -our motto ,land of the lying and conniving. Each and every person should be ashamed. Ashamed that they allowed this to happen and ashamed that it continues. Get off your f-ing couch and FIGHT for the morals and values of YOUR COUNTRY.

Terri May 29th 2010 12:37PM

Why can't we get rid of BOTH the poisonous toys AND fake watches. I love that Mark wants us to fight for the values of our country and then uses an expletive.

Brian Smith May 28th 2010 11:29AM

tapping the sunglass makers in this article is perfect. I retailed sunglasses for years and found , although there is some difference in glass and such, the actual difference in hard cost of the product was neglible. The high priced glasses were little different then the cheap ones...you are merely buying the name

Ron Throckmorton May 30th 2010 2:37PM

You're right the glasses were made about the same, one costing $4 vs the name brand at$125. Even the protection from the sun was identical. The big brand beginning with nthe letter O

motor105 May 28th 2010 11:38AM

If we act to guard our borders (and enforce our existing laws) we wouldn't have this problem to begin with!

DOC May 28th 2010 11:40AM

GEE, I WONDER WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF IT WERE A CHINESE OIL RIG THAT MADE THE SPILL IN THE GULF OF MEXICO? HOW IS IT THAT ONLY THE U.S. COMPANIES ARE EFFECTED?

ddelay2038 May 28th 2010 12:46PM

At the end of your report you say you are talking to the luxury sunglass makers, why do you attack them? If you are going to attack them then you have to include the luxury shoes, purses, suits, cars, jewelry, etc. In all these other products, you can find off brands of equal quality. That is exactly why people want this stuff, they know they can get it cheaper anywhere else and with the same quality. But they are buying the name.

philippe May 31st 2010 10:31AM

he is right everything we have in our country is made in china , and this is for that we buy them cheaper .
and we do not care , because at soon you go shopping , you look for the cheap price without care about our economie

westparkin May 28th 2010 12:49PM

I hope more fakes are sold in our U.S.
Those so called luxury items cost pennies,
and are sold at 5000 % or more by greedy
foreign companies.
I f their products would be less expensive
they would not have a so called "problem".
This is not a U.S. PROBLEM.

louis May 28th 2010 2:40PM

Wow!!! this is great, now our safety is secure, we all can sleep better now. the police and who ever caught this guy should be rewarded... What a joke, all the problems in this country and we are smashing fake watches... you stupid assinine government officials. vote these jerk-offs out of office.
who decides what type of articles are written for the internet? get rid of them also.

William May 29th 2010 4:28PM

Hey Louis! You ever go fishing?

Terry May 28th 2010 2:51PM

Anyone who could afford to buy a real Rolex is not going to be fooled by a fake. I don't see why Rolex is so pissed off about fakes. They don't take away prospective customers. For the buyers, it feels good to wear a watch that looks expensive. Most of us are not CEO's earning multi-millions in salaries each year. Most of us are just scraping by with out payments. Why not let us feel good each time we put on our fake watch? There isn't much else to feel good about these days!

kgbkgb00seven May 28th 2010 8:43PM

Thats right 90% of us cant buy one.. So let someone that can make them sale them to the pepole at a price we can padi. WHY aret you not saling the real? lower y our price. I have one and it cost me 6700 and i paid to much, I us my timex Thats real and only cost me $18.43 Rolex no that they can make any of them for under 1000 But they are all about money$$$$$$$$$ not the pepole
KGBKGB))seven

Andrea May 29th 2010 3:05PM

If I read your comments correctly, (I could hardly understand what you meant because you just weren't clear) you said you own a real Rolex and paid $6700 for it? Or did you mean you paid $6700 for a fake? How does someone with such terrible grammar and spelling make enough money to buy a $6700 watch? I am a teacher, making sure kids learn to spell and use correct grammar, and I'll never be able to afford a Rolex, real or fake! (I don't really want one anyway!)

LAMAR C CHAPMAN III Jun 1st 2010 12:12PM

HEY AMERICA!!!! What a waste of time and precious economic resources.

This is not criminal. COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENTS CASES ARE REDRESSED IN CIVIL COURT. The civil servant employees are looking for easy targets to jail only to enhance their conviction rate. Spending millions to prosecute, convict and jail a replica watch maker is stupid and only serve the luxury brand trademark holder if it in fact does. A twenty year old man will not stop wearing a $50,000 knock-off he bought for $75.00 and buy the real thing just because you sent someone to jail for making the knock-off.

The Chinese government has a knock-off mall. They believe that if you manufacture it, they have a right to counterfeits it. They are not obligated to honor our trademarks and copyrights.

Counterfeiter from China took pictures of an American car at the auto show. They had the replica on the market long before the original came out. The executives from the major car company couldn't tell which car was which. Healthy competition is good for everyone. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!

Lamar C. Chapman III
Solo Fides (Only by Faith)
Crown-of-Life Recipient 10-24-2004
Sacredotal Ordination 10-24-2004

lewis May 28th 2010 5:05PM

Well said, Terry. The people who knowingly buy fake Rolek watches, for the most part cannot afford to buy the genuine article. The mere fact that they wear the fakes helps the Rolex company by advertising them wherever they go. Those yo-yos will never destroy the underground economy.

Barry May 28th 2010 5:57PM

Im from a watchmaker jeweler family, and I have collected those high cost watches all my life. They are a status symbol no different than buying Mercedes Benz. It says that if you have the money to own it, you must be a success. While wearing a Rolex copy, is like wearing costume jewelery. Why the makers of luxury products think that they are loosing sales, is a mystery to me except that the copy industry uses their brand names on the fakes because the quality difference is remarkable. But there are many people who want to pretend and I say let them pretend. The problem with the economy and people's reluctance to fork out 3 thousand dollars and up for a time piece is the real problem for the lux manufacturers, not the fakes.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments